Don’t Be Perfect, You Fool

Once upon a time, writing and the creation of concepts in general came to me as easy as breathing, and at the time I didn’t know what I had. I think the difference between a hobby and a profession, apart from the payout, is the unwanted anxiety that comes with a profession.

When I became content editor, community manager, head of content, product manager and a number of fancy titles that seemed to snidely derive glee in not being commensurate with the pay for so much highfalutin, I became seized with that anxiety. And with the anxiety came caution. With caution came fear and with fear came a very miserable Justin hunching over the computer, trying to write the perfect title, the perfect first paragraph, the perfect pitch.

Usually — and mercifully — I overcome these awkward mental barricades soon enough (before my bosses can gather their wits about them and fire me for sheer slowness), and I soon carve out a niche in the company as one of the dopest that ever did it. Amen.

My new boss tells me today, “there is no doubt that you are creative and talented, so I’m just going to go right ahead and let you know what your greatest problem will be: analysis paralysis. Listen: it is better to make progress than to make none at all over the deliberation over the simplest things.”

Great advice if I ever heard one. Now I just need to convince myself to get with the freestyle program.

Time to leave skid marks in life’s underwear.

(Post-script: I’ve been trying since I first wrote this and it’s helping me do good work at Hotels.ng)